806 ON THE UROGENITAL ORGANS OF THE KANGAROO, 



ing to the copy of the catalogue in the gallery no entry about it 

 was to be found. On applying to Professor Flower for further 

 information, that gentleman very kindly allowed us to see another 

 copy of the catalogue which contained the following manuscript 

 entry: " 2740 D. The female organs of a small species of 

 kangaroo Macropus penicillatus, showing a direct communication, 

 through which a bristle is passed, between the common mesial 

 cul-de-sac and the urogenital passage. In Museum before 1861." 



In his article "Marsupialia " (he. cit.J Professor Owen speaks 

 of having received the impregnated uterus of an animal^belongiug 

 to this species, but beyond the mere mention of it there, no further 

 description is given. 



Of my twenty specimens, twelve belonged to females with 

 young in the pouch, four to females with large but empty pouches, 

 and the remaining four to immature animals with rudimentary 

 pouches and teats. Each of sixteen of them shews a direct com- 

 munication between the mesial vaginal canal and the urogenital 

 passage. In the remaining four the direct communication does 

 not exist, though the condition of things is quite different from 

 that in M. major, inasmuch as the tissue of the mesial cul-de-sac 

 is continuous with that of the urogenital passage. 



I shall now proceed to describe some of the specimens individ- 

 ually. 



Osphranter robustus. — I have examined four specimens belong- 

 ing to this species of which (5.) and (d.) were given me by Mr. 

 Morley, 



(a.) The organs belonged to a nearly full-grown female. There 

 was no young one in the pouch which was large and appeared to 

 have been recently tenanted. The right teat was very large and 

 on squeezing it milk exuded from it. 



The urogenital chamber was carefully slit up along its dorsal 

 wall, beginning at the external orifice, and on laying back the 

 cut edges the aperture of the direct communication was most 



